LEGION BASEBALL: Playing ball ... hopefully

One way or another, the Coeur d’Alene Lumbermen American Legion baseball team hopes to take the field this summer.

When, where and for how long, that’s still to be determined.

While area high school teams sit in limbo waiting to see if the spring sports season will get played, area American Legion baseball programs are optimistic about starting when the time comes in late May.

“As of now, we’re kind of in a holding pattern,” Coeur d’Alene Legion president Mike Thompson said. “The high school season is still suspended, and hasn’t canceled the season quite yet.”

On Tuesday, the national American Legion canceled the regional tournaments, as well as the World Series, scheduled for August due to the coronavirus pandemic. The decision on regular season, district and state tournament play was left up to each individual state.

“It was really premature, with those tournaments four months away,” Thompson said. “But at least they gave us the option of still trying to play if it’s safe.”

Thompson added directors of Legion programs statewide are meeting later this month to determine how teams around the state will continue moving forward.

As for how Coeur d’Alene will approach things ...

“Our plan is to play with both the (Class) AA and A teams, as well as our 13-U team,” Thompson said. “When that starts, we just don’t know right now. We’ll play as long as we need to in order to get the games in.”

As of now, Coeur d’Alene is scheduled to open its AA season at the Missoula Mavericks Memorial Day tournament May 23-25, with the Area A (district) tournament tentatively scheduled for July 17-19 at Harris Field in Lewiston. Thompson added that date could be pushed back if necessary since there’s no regional tournament or World Series this year.

“One benefit to this is we’re not handcuffed by having to finish on a certain date,” Thompson said. “It gives us more opportunity to play baseball well into August. A lot of what happens next will be what the state decides to with other programs. If the state doesn’t feel like they can operate this season, we can operate as a non-Legion program and play other club teams in other tournaments to get games in. Our plan now is we’re a Legion program, but if we don’t have that option, we can go independent for a year. Our intention is to do everything we can to have Lumbermen baseball this year. What it looks like, we don’t know what that will be yet.”

Programs in Northern Lakes (Rathdrum) and Prairie (Post Falls) are still organizing plans for how to continue.

Coeur d’Alene’s AA roster has seven seniors from either Coeur d’Alene or Lake City High.

“It’s extremely important for these seniors to get to play some games together,” Thompson said. “It would be good to get some ball in this year. Mostly, we’re just going to have to wait and see what happens in the coming weeks.”

Montana does not offer high school baseball and most Legion programs in that state begin play in mid-April.

“I’ve talked with a couple of Montana teams, and they’re still planning to play this year,” Thompson said. “I haven’t heard of any teams in Idaho that aren’t going to play this year, but each state is going to be unique. There could be variations to what happens in each state.”

Late Wednesday, Washington American Legion Baseball canceled play for the season for that state’s teams. North Idaho teams play several teams from the Spokane area, as well as elsewhere in Washington, in nonleague games and tournaments.

Idaho’s stay-home order is set to expire on Wednesday, April 15, but could be extended by Gov. Brad Little’s office.

“The challenge we could have is we could get the green light to go, but will need the OK from the city to use Thorco Field and the schools to allow access to the high school fields,” Thompson said. “Right now, we don’t know how that’s going to work out.”